Expanded metal.



LEWIS E. CURTIS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

EXPANDEp METAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 30, 1906.

Application lfiled February 15.1905. Serial No. 245,659.

Be it known that I, LEWIS E. CURTIS, a citizen of the United States, residing in Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illi- .nois, have invented a new and useful Imits .resistance to buckling or bending strains;

and my object in this invention has been to so construct it as to increase its ability to re sist buckling or bending to a marked degree. Incidentally, also, my invention gives ie metal a lin uch greater tensile strengththan .that of the ordinary expanded metal.

The nature of my improvement is 4fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, and is also fully described below.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is la plan of my invention. Figs. 2 and 3 are sections on the lines 2 2 and 3 3, respectively, of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a plan of the slitted sheet from which the invention isforined.

In making my improved metal I form short longitudinal slits in rows in the sheet, as seen at Fig. 4, the slits being differently arranged relative to .each other, however, from the arrangement customary in making other forms of expanded metal, my object in this change being to enable the use of every alternate strand as a straight member of the full length of the sheet and free from bends, while the intervening members or strands are short and connected at their ends to the straightnienibers at each side of them,

and when the slitted sheet is opened these intervening members assume diagonal positions, so that they act as trusses to the straight members.

In the drawings I have shown the straight or unbent strands at 5 and the bent or intervening strands at 6. 'lhe slits between adj acent strands 5 are staggered relatively; but the slits on the opposite sides of the strands 5 and in tbc saine transverse plane are coincident'instead of being staggered. The construction brings three strandstogetlier at each of the bonds 7, and the meshes formed in the metal are triangular with two short sides and one long one.

The slitted sheet, either after it has been opened or at the time of opening it, is also bent so as to carry every other one of the straight strands laterally from the plane of the original sheet, as clearly shown at Figs. 2 and 3. I thus increase the thickness, so to speak, of the fabric, which then consists of straight strands upon each surface and intervening diagonal or trussing strands. When laid in a floor, such a fabric will be so stiff as to enable it to sustain loads much heavier than those carried by prevailin constructions of expanded metal without uckling or dangerous dcection between its end supports. In the sheet having this zigzag or corrugated feature the diagonal strands which intersect with the straight ones at short intervals su port the latter in every di rection, so that tlhe latter are stiffened and strengthened and enabled to resist pressure which may come upon the fabric Alaterally or which may come laterally upon the individual strands, and the usefulness of such a fabric in the building of concrete arches and in what are known as solid partitions is very apparent.

claimil. The new article of expanded sheet metal herein described, consisting of straight. or uiibent strands and intervening trussin strands unit.ng thc straight strands, the a ternate straight strands being located in different planes and the trussing-strands being inclined between said planes. l

2. The expanded sheet-metal fabric herein shownconsistin of straight members of the full length of t ie original sheet, and short trussing members, the fabric being bent-so as to carry each alternate straight member to different lanes an to incline the trussing members etween sa d planes.

3. The' new article of expanded sheet metal herein described consisting of a series of straightV continuous strands arranged in two planes and intervening trussing-strands uniting the continuous strands and arranged at an angle thereto and to the plane of the original sheet.

H. M. MUNDAY, l EDW. S. EvAR'rs. 

